“The trips are an amazing experience for staff and students alike. You get to experience a country and its culture through doing something good for others – which helps you to understand a place and its people more fully and not through the eyes of a tourist. Concordia’s personal and professional approach to organising these trips means that they are worry free for even the most conscientious of leaders. The trips can be whatever you want them to be but no matter what you choose they ultimately achieve the most important thing with regards to students’ development; to help them become well-rounded and open-minded adults, and this outcome is worth more than any education they receive at college.”

Together with the students from Esher College, we joined our partner in Nepal on the ongoing post-earthquake relief work in the hills of Kathmandu. It was a project taking the students far out from their comfort zone and modern comfortabilities, but also to an experience of a lifetime which will be with them for a long time! The group mustered through the monsoon rain, the repetitive diet of Dal Bhat, and added true value to a project far away from the beaten tourist tracks.

We are happy to have volunteers such as these joining our Group Volunteering Programme, and we would be surprised if this would be the last we see of them!